LONGMONT --Longmont has set a new record for September rainfall, due to the 500-year flood that hit the city.

Times-Call weather expert Dave Larison said the city hit 6.3 inches of precipitation for the month by Sunday night. Except for about a third of an inch, all that rainfall came since the beginning of the flood Thursday.

The previous record of 6.06 inches was set in 1938.

Lyons residents may now pick up their mail at the Longmont post office, 201 Coffman St. An evacuation order is still in effect for the town.

Roll-off trash bins have been sent to Longmont's flood-stricken areas today to help remove debris from the flood.

The roll-offs went to six flood zones: the Valley and Golden Ponds neighborhood, Champion Greens and the Greens, the St. Vrain mobile home park, Missouri Avenue, Delaware Street between Main and South Pratt, and the Royal Mobile trailer park.

The city will remove all flood debris placed in the bins. The bins should not be used for paints, chemicals, electronics and large appliances, city officials said; city workers will pick those items up at a later date. Yard waste, garnbage and construction materials will be accepted.

Neighborhoods that have not yet received a roll-off can place their debris in the yard just above the curve. It should not be placed in the street. Those who have not been included in a flood area but think they also need help should call 303-651-8416.

Trash collection will follow a normal schedule in all other neighborhoods, except where the roads are impassible.

All city offices are now open except for the St. Vrain Memorial Building, which is being used as an evacuaton center. The Boulder County Fairgrounds will remain closed through Sunday.

Longmont has re-opened access to all its neighborhoods, except for the Royal Mobile trailer park, which is still under an evacuation order.

Longmont police Cmdr. Jeff Satur said Monday morning that residents in all other areas were free to return, but that some neighborhoods would be monitoring who went in and out, so identification might be required to enter. If the weather changes, a re-evacuation could be ordered.

A 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew remains in effect for flooded or evacuated areas.

For many businesses on the once-submerged Boston Avenue, Monday was the first chance to return and view the damage. Some were able to get back on track quickly; Left Hand Brewing Co. had its first truck of beer back on the road by 1 p.m.

"The tag line for us has always been 'Brewed on the banks of the mighty St. Vrain," said Chris Lennert of Left Hand as he scraped mud from the microbrewery's sidewalk. "I think we're changing that to 'Brewed on an island in the mighty St. Vrain.'"

The "island" still wasn't completely dry. Moving water and sinkholes were still common in the neighborhood. In many places, pavement had buckled or sunk a foot or more below the curb; sections of the nearby railway were bent and twisted.

Left Hand didn't get away entirely untouched -- there was water in the main office, a submerged truck, and some other relatively incidental damage -- but the floodwaters crested at the loading dock, leaving the brewhouse and taproom safe. That wasn't something Lennert would have expected when he left minutes ahead of a wall of water, shouting "Go, go, go!"

"The hundred-year flood plan they gave us was scarily accurate," Lennert said.

Longmont resident Kristin McDonald and her dog Sakari quickly evacuate their home in Longmont after a notice from the city that conditions up stream had changed on Sunday, Sept. 15. (Matthew Jonas/Times-Call)
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Matthew Jonas
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Though there were some issues in the brewhouse that prevented Left Hand from starting to brew beer on Monday, its taproom did re-open for business on Monday afternoon.

Others were less fortunate. Andy Im of Main Street Import, a small Boston Avenue auto place, said his business was basically trashed.

"Have to start from the bottom," he said, pulling on rubber boots and hauling shovels out of the back of a pickup."Basically, we're screwed unless we can get some kind of help from someone."

To help those first steps, a disaster recovery center opened this morning in the Twin Peaks Mall for those in flood-stricken areas, and a "state of the city" address will be broadcast tonight from the City Council chambers. About 100 residents lined up at the opening of the center in the old Steve and Barry's store.

"We went back yesterday and got what we could," said Margaret Alaniz, whose mother, Ophelia Ramirez, evacuated from the St. Vrain mobile home park. "The front porch and front bedroom are a total loss. We're not sure about the foundation, we need to get someone to check that out."

The center was still in a bare-bones state at its opening, featuring computers to register for flood assistance and representatives from both American Family Insurance and Colorado Baptist Disaster Relief. The city is working to bring in other insurance companies, assistant city manager Sandi Seader said, but it will be at least two days before the Federal Emergency Management Agency arrives on scene.

"We'll be having lots of information as soon as we have more things here," Seader said. Mayor Dennis Coombs met with FEMA this morning by phone, she said, and was due to talk to state disaster authorities this afternoon.

Even the rudimentary aid available Monday morning was welcome to Alaniz.

"I love it," she said. "It's a good start to help people out and get them pointed in the right direction."

Those in need of disaster assistance should fill out an online application at www.disasterassitance.gov. Besides the mall, 18 computers will also be available for in-person reservation at the Longmont Public Library.

City officials advise that you contact your insurance company before filling out the application. To complete the form, you will need contact information for where you can be reached, the address where the damage happened, as well as your Social Security number, gross household income and any insurance you have. Those in a shelter should check the "mass sheltering" box on the form.

People applying for multiple disasters need to fill out a form for each. Those applying for both home and business assistance can complete one form for both. Those applying should keep copies of the federal ID number and claim number they get, along with the password they have created for their application.

Appications for Federal Emergency Management Agency aid can also be made by phone at 1-800-621-3362. FEMA and state representatives will not be at the mall today, but will eventually come to the center.

In Del Camino, Mountain View Fire and Rescue began distributing water to flood victims at 8 a.m at the fire district's new offices in Del Camino, 3561 Stagecoach Road.

Tonight, a "state of the city" address is scheduled for 7 p.m. at the City Council Chambers, 350 Kimbark St. It will be broadcast live on Channel 8; rebroadcasts will be shown on Channel 8 and online.

The address will include introductory remarks by Coombs, an overview of the impacted areas by City Manager Harold Dominguez, a rundown by emergency operations manager Dan Eamon of recovery activies and resources for restoration, and a report by public works director Dale Rademacher.

City engineer Nick Wolfrum said he was impressed by everyone's willingness to pitch in and help. When Southmoor Park re-opened on Saturday, he noted, the first thing he saw was a long line of people already working with shovels to clear mud from the gutters, making it easier for road crews to do their own job.

"It was the most incredible sign of community," Wolfrum said.

He was also relieved that the 20-month-long Left Hand Creek flood control project had been completed in July, just in the nick of time.Several neighbors near the creek have been quick to praise the project, saying it kept the damage from being worse than it was.

"We'll have to rebuild a lot of it, of course," Wolfrum said. "But it protected a lot of homes."

The resilience was evident at a small Boston Avenue landscaping business that found and hung out an American flag that had survived the flooding.

"There's mud everywhere, but it's not as bad as I thought," said Kim Robbins as her dad fit the flagpole into place. "We'll survive. We're a pretty tough family."

According to the National Weather Service, there is a 20 percent chance of rain today and tonight. Tomorrow is predicted to be sunny with a high of 84 degrees. After tonight, no rain is in the immediate forecast through Friday.

Times-Call weather expert Dave Larison said that by Sunday afternoon, Longmont had set a new record for September rainfall at 6.25 inches. The previous record of 6.06 inches was set in 1938.

Torrential rains on an already drenched city led to more evacuations on Sunday, with some residents having to flee the homes they had started cleaning out on Saturday.

At 5 p.m., the city's Emergency Operations Center issued a mandatory evacuation order for the residential neighborhoods around Third Avenue and Hover Street, including Third Avenue Place, Bruce Place and Widgeon Drive.

But it wasn't the rain over Longmont that forced residents out of their homes. Weather conditions in the mountains deteriorated early and then continued to get worse through the day Sunday.

For some of the residents it was the second time they've evacuated since flooding began last week. Kristin McDonald and her family were cleaning out their home on Widgeon Drive when the evacuation notice came through. The McDonald home's basement was flooded already, and there were piles of soaked items in the driveway.

"My husband had mementos from a couple generations, and everything's a loss," McDonald said.

She was thankful for all the help she received from friends and neighbors. At least 100 people had been helping her family clean up, she said.

Families in homes nearby were also in cleanup mode when the evacuation notice was issued, and driveways were repositories of ruined belongings.

Ron and Linda Rodgers live next door to the McDonalds. About seven feet of water came into their finished basement, and among the items they lost was $20,000 worth of electronics, Ron said. Homeowners in the neighborhood do not have flood insurance, he said, adding cleanup and mold mitigation will take a long time, Ron said.

"I expect to be out of here for three months," he said.

Earlier in the day, residents of the Greens, Champion Greens and Valley neighborhoods, which are east of Airport Road and between Ninth Avenue and Mountain View, were forced to re-evacuate. They had been let back into their homes Saturday.

Longmont Police Cmdr. Jeff Satur said that emergency management officials were keeping a close eye on five rain gauges that the city has along the north and south St. Vrain Rivers, above Lyons near Button Rock Dam. Those readings help officials determine how much water they'll be seeing in Longmont.

City officials on Sunday evening said Button Rock Dam remains in good shape and that city water is still safe.

The city's power system was still stable, but 1,300 customers were without power as of Sunday night. Trash and recycling service was expected to proceed on a normal schedule Monday except in flooded areas. Rollout receptacles were to be deployed today in flooded neighborhoods.

The latest road closures and other information can be found at longmontoem.com.

There were no new road closures in Longmont as a result of Sunday's heavy rain, Satur said. He added that overnight Saturday night, the city's public works and natural resources department, working with the Army Corps of Engineers, made "good progress" in redirecting a portion of the St. Vrain River channel. The river had jumped its banks and caused significant flooding in several subdivisions off Airport Road.

Satur took a helicopter ride over the St. Vrain River to do an aerial assessment of the damage and said that the new channel was making a positive impact on those subdivisions near Twin Peaks Golf Course.

"The one thing that I really noticed is that diversion they cut last night ... is definitely sending the water back into the St. Vrain River, where it should be going," he said.

A breach in the headgate of the Oligarchy Ditch caused some nervous moments for about 1,000 households around McIntosh Lake on Sunday afternoon.

Residents around the lake received automatic notification calls around 12:30 p.m., the message telling them that flooding in the area was "imminent" and warning them to evacuate immediately and get to higher ground. Less than an hour later the message was downgraded to an "advisory" evacuation and people in the affected area were urged to "shelter in place."

The Oligarchy's headgate is off 63rd Street, east of Lyons, and the ditch flows from there east through Longmont before dumping into Union Reservoir. Crews with the city's department of public works and natural resources repaired the headgate and set it to divert most of the water that would normally flow into the Oligarchy into an overflow area, and from there it would end up back in the St. Vrain.